When a live streamer goes missing on Mount Denali, his girlfriend ventures to Alaska to find him.  What she wasn’t expecting was for something dark to find her.  Your Major Spoilers review of Dark Pyramid #1, awaits!

DARK PYRAMID #1

Writer: Paul Tobin
Artist: PJ Holden
Colorist: Sara Colella
Letterer: Taylor Esposito
Publisher: Mad Cave Studios
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: March 12th, 2025

Previously in Dark Pyramid: Hooky Hidalgo is a live streamer with a decent fan base.  When his stream suddenly goes dark after he discovers something strange on Mount Denali, his girlfriend, and his fans flock to Alaska to rescue him.  Something the locals aren’t happy about.

WELCOME TO ALASKA

Dark Pyramid #1 opens up with Hooky Hidalgo falling down the side of a mountain.  After some bumps and bruises, he pulls himself together, only to discover that he’s now at the entrance of some ruins.  He tells the people watching his live stream that he’s going in, then things go dark.  Two days later, his girlfriend Becca, who had been watching the stream, arrives at the base of Mount Denali in a little town.  She’s live streaming herself and relays the difficulties she had getting the police to help find Hooky.  Later on, after desperately trying o find a place to stay, without any luck, she’s approached by two police officers.  They offer her a cabin to stay at and she heads there.  After settling in for the night, she’s shocked by an intruder who comes with a warning about what is coming next.

RELYING TOO MUCH ON A GIMMICK

Dark Pyramid #1 has a lot of the usual things going for it.  There’s a pretty strong motivation for the main character, there’s a decent amount of tension and conflict for her, and there are plenty of hooks to pull the reader further into the mystery.  So, on a technical level, this is a pretty decent comic.  That is, of course, if you can get past the reliance on the live-streaming angle of the whole thing.  The way they use the character’s live streaming to an audience to act as a sort of narrator for the issue itself is clever in some spots.  It also helps establish a sort of hidden commentary on the incompatibilities between the dangers of the natural world and a breed of obliviousness that exists from being constantly online.  But, for two-thirds of this issue, the live streaming is the only dialog, and some of it is straight-up describing what is happening in the panel without adding anything new.  As it goes on, this starts to impede the visual storytelling element of the comic and edges towards being an annoyance.

SPOOKY AND OMINOUS

The art in Dark Pyramid #1 shines brightest when things are dark and eerie.  The entire last scene in the cabin is wonderfully realized, with a lot of ominous hints at what’s lurking in the shadows.  The lettering deserves a lot of credit here, as it gives what the monster is saying a scratchy and otherworldly feel.  Speaking of the monster, it’s a great design that’s uncomfortable to look at in the best way, and I’m excited to hopefully see more of it in coming issues.  There are some moments, though, when they lay the ominous and foreboding feeling on a little thick.  One example is after the cops offer Becca the cabin, there’s a panel of both of them having an exaggerated evil smirk.  They might as well have given them mustaches to twirl as well.

BOTTOM LINE:  NEEDS TO DROP THE STREAMING ANGLE

Dark Pyramid #1 is a perfectly middle of the road comic.  It’s technically sound and has some pretty interesting things going for it.  In this first issue, the live streaming gave the story a nice modern feel, while also having a functional place within the pages.  But, by the end of this issue, it had become bothersome and actually hindered some of the storytelling.  Visually, this comic captures the spookiness exceptionally well and gives the readers a pretty cool monster design but can sway into cheesy territory at times.  I think this is a decent read, especially if you’re looking for a new sort of setting for a horror story.  3.5 out of 5 stars.

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Dark Pyramid #1

70%

70%

Mountains are Scary

Dark Pyramid #1 is a solid horror story with some interesting things going on. At times though it suffers from having too much of a good thing, but this shows promise that this could be a good series.

• Writing

  7
• Art

  7
• Coloring

  7
• User Ratings (0 Votes)
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